Last summer sun in Greece

Last week I was on Samos, an island in Greece, near Turkey. To soak up the last summer sun. The temperature was really nice, with lots of sunshine. My sister and I rented a great villa near Phytagorion with views on the sea and the coast of Turkey.

View from our villa

One of the churches we past on our trips and a visit to the Archeological Museum in Vathi - Samos city

A view of Kokkari

Cappuccino in Kokkari

View from our villa, the mountains of Turkey in the early morning fog

A monastery in the hills, and old remains in Phytagorion

And a tasty grilled sea-bream for lunch

And now we are back home again, autumn is here and the summer time has ended. Time to go back to work!

Sketching San Diego

Life has taken it normal pace again. I have been busy with visiting family and friends, drinking coffee, going out for lunch and looking for a new assignment in the meantime. I am not in a hurry to start work again, I really enjoy my time off.

I have been going thru all the pictures I took while I was in San Diego, and found a few more to sketch. In my Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.

Mission San Luis Rey (Oceanside) on the left and the rocky shores of La Jolla on the right.

Two beautiful Asian sculptures (seen in the San Diego Museum of Art)

Balboa Park near the lily pond

And with added watercolors 

I will be leaving for another week holiday soon, I am going to Greece this time, with my sister. Hopefully we can catch the last sun of this summer :-).

Home again

And my time in San Diego is up.... and I am already home again. I flew on Friday from San Diego to Minneapolis and from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, where I arrived on Saturday.

I had a great time, with lots of quality sketching and painting time. Real me time. I loved every day of the 3 weeks. But... I am also happy to be home again. Sleeping in my own bed and socializing with friends and family.

The last few days in San Diego I visited the Birch aquarium in La Jolla and spent the days with some last minute shopping :-).

 And I will show you some pages from my sketchbook I have not shown before.

And one of the last sunsets in La Jolla....

Last week in San Diego

My last week in San Diego has started... A few more days to go before I fly home. I have really enjoyed myself, and still am, but I am alzo looking forward to go home. Unfortunately I cannot taken the nice weather with me..

First let me show you some of the seascapes I painted last week.

Friday I went to San Diego old town. The place where the first Europeans settled. It has lovely old buildings,  most of them are small museums you can visit. And lots of shops and restaurants. All Mexican. Nice to walk around, sketch and browse. 

And on Saturday I went on the weekly outing with the San Diego Urban Sketchers. To Encinitas this week. To sketch at the annual Woodie Fest. A fest with all classic cars, woodies, cars with wood. Built to transport surfboards. It was really fun,  but extremely hot and humid this Saturday. 

Sunday it was so hot, it was beter inside than outside. I did go to the Seaport Village in San Diego to look around. It is next to the water and has beautiful views. 

And today is already Monday, my last few days in San Diego. There is a storm coming our way so I drove to Balboa Park to sketch this morning. And it stayed dry all afternoon, actually it still is... I walked around, sketched the tower of the museum of man from the Alcazar garden and visited the museum. Great museum, a bit small but with lovely exhibitions of Maya's, mummies and interesting stuff on genes, dna ,  etc.

After a nice lunch I went back to La Jolla, taking the scenic drive. 

Still enjoying San Diego

Another few days have past and I am still busy. This area has lots to offer and so many places to visit.

On Monday I drove to Point Loma to the Cabrillo national monument. In the park there is a nice visitor center with information on the landscape and on Cabrillo, who came to America long time ago as an explorer. They also show regular video's, I watch one about the tidalpools at cabrillo. The best time to view the tidalpools is actually the winter and/or a low tides,  so nothing to see today..
So instead I walked up to the lighthouse and the monument and drove to a few viewpoints with impressive rocks.

 And then it rained in California. I have been to California many times but never had any rain. No problem,  also on my list is the Maya exposition in the Natural History museum. A beautiful and interesting exposition and museum and many hours later I leave the museum and the rain has stopped. 

The sun is shining again on Wednesday.  Time for a visit to the first mission built in California, Mission San Diego de Alcala. Lovely location, built against a hillside and with a lovely courtyard garden.

And today I drove up north on the Pacific Highway 101. To Carlsbad actually to visit the outlets. Shop until you drop! And yes, I am tired when done. Time to go back and watch another amazing sunset. Oh, and I have been painting a few seascapes today, but it is now too dark to make nice pictures. I will show them in the next blogpost. 

Cooling down

The wheather  has been really hot the last days and now the temperature is finally coming down. Or at least it is on its way back to normal.

In the meantime I have been busy. I visited the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. This was one of the biggest missions in california and it is still in use as a church and a retreat.

And I did some sketching at the beach down the road (in one of my new sketchbooks ,  I bought a small square size sketchbook and two wonderful watercolor journals ).

Yesterday  (Saturday ) I went to a meetup with the San Diego plein air painters. They were meeting at the eucalyptus foŕrest in La Jolla. Most of them paint with oils but I painted with watercolors. 

And today I meet up with the San Diego Urban Sketchers in Rancho Santa Fe. This is a lovely little town just 30  minutes away. We meet at the garden club, where at 11 an artshow started, with work from one of the regular Sketchers.  I sketched the library at the other side of the road.

And after a visit to the artshow, I joined a few Sketchers for lunch at the local bistro. The local coordinator is trying to arrange another meeting during the week. Maybe even with a visit to the zoo. I will let you know wat happens next week.

Feeling hot hot hot

It has been really hot the last few days. The best way to stay cool is actually to go shopping and stay in airconditioned stores or go to the beach. Lol.

Yesterday, live returned back to normal after the labor day weekend. I went to Balboa Park in San Diego,  after a short stop at the local Dick Blick store. The park has beautiful buildings, most of the buildings are either from the 1915-1916 Panama California Exposition or from the 1935-1936 Pacific International Exposition.

I visited the visitor center for a map and a cup of coffee. First stop was the Timken Museum of Art, one of Vermeer's paintings  (the woman in blue reading a letter ) is visiting from Amsterdam.

Next on my list was the botanical building and the waterlilies pond.

I walked thru a part of the park to the Spanish Village Arts center but did not visit any of the artists  .. it was so hot... I will come back another time.

I visited the San Diego museum of art instead with a great exposition on Coney Is land. Nice and cool inside! 

And on my way to the carpark I started this sketch of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. 

Hello from San Diego

I have arrived in San Diego and have already been busy. I flew in on Friday, making one stop in Salt Lake City and arrived in the late afternoon. After picking up my rental car I found my way to the cottage easily. I unpacked my bag, had a small bite to eat and went for a walk. The beach is just at the end of the road and there was a beautiful sunset.

And then  I went to sleep. The time difference with Europe is 9 hours, so I was feeling pretty exhausted.

On Saturday morning I went to a meeting with the San Diego Urban Sketchers. We met at Presidio park, one the early European settlement. We sketched for 2 hours and then showed our work. I had a great time, it is a nice and welcoming group. 

It is already Sunday. I went to the farmers market this morning and bought lovely ripe peaches, tomatoes and some vegetables. Oh yeah... And a mini pecan pie ;-).

At Aaronbrothers I bought painting papers and a few brushes. I love the labor day sales! And after a visit to the beach  (it is hot here), it is time for siësta.